Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka

Magdalena Nowicka's social science project explores the following questions: How do migrants acquire the competence to successfully establish themselves in a new society and culture, and can they transfer these newly acquired intercultural skills and values to the places of their origin through their social networks? What conditions influence the process of intercultural learning?

Brief information about the project

• Acronym and title: TRANSFORmIG Transnational Transfer of Multicultural Habitus
• Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka
• Host institution: Humboldt University Berlin
• Funding line and year: Starting Grants 2012
• Project information on CORDIS

How did you feel when you found out about the ERC grant?

I was happy and surprised. After the interview in Brussels, I was not in a position to predict whether I could convince the Commission. Some questions were critical and probably meant to unsettle me; but a couple of commission members obviously nodded with satisfaction. The good news was given to me by my boss on the phone: first he reassured me without saying what it was about. When he said, "You got it!" I actually reacted rather cautiously; I didn't feel the joy and relief until later.

How are things currently going in your project?

My project is ending soon and we are all a bit sad about it. We are writing a lot of articles at the moment, and will continue to do so after the project ends. We've had a lot of exciting results, so we're thinking about doing one or two books together. In that sense, the formal end is far from an end to the joint work.